Innovation at its best

WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE, Mo. -- It's been said, necessity is the mother of invention. Ideas take shape, from chemical reactions in the brain, to graphite scratchings on blank paper, to a series of calculations in a computer program, to data fed to a machine which transforms a chunk of aluminum into a valuable tool with the potential to save the Air Force millions of dollars.

It started with a need. Fire fighters at Anderson AFB, Guam, responded to a B-2 that had a tailpipe fire.  Fire fighters were trained to fight engine fires, and put that training to use, but had a difficult time spraying the aqueous film-forming foam, used to choke fires out, into the aft part of the engine bay, where the fire was. After extinguishing the blaze, they realized they needed an apparatus to quickly and effectively extinguish such a fire, should it ever happen again.

To keep the jets flying until on-board fire-suppression systems are updated, engineers at Northrop-Grumman drew up plans for a suppression manifold that could be placed in a B-2's tailpipe opening to distribute AFFF to the part of the engine bay affected by the fire, but they needed a way to connect the manifold to the fire hoses.

"Northrop-Grumman came to us with an idea to reduce the nozzles the Fire Department uses to put out suspected engine fires," said Tech Sgt. James Gargano, 509th Maintenance Squadron metals technology assistant shop chief. "They had an idea of what they wanted it to look like, came over with a drawing, and we tweaked a few aspects here and there, and by the end of the day we built a working prototype."

The metals technicians laid out the design with a computer-aided-drafting program. They plugged the data into their water jet machine, which made short work of four-inch thick aluminum sheets, cutting out the shape of the collars that connect fire hose to manifold with 22,000 psi of precisely-directed water and abrasive material.

"The water jet cuts a two-dimensional shape out of the sheet of aluminum, then we take it to the computed numerically controlled mill, where it machines the part into a three-dimensional shape," said Mr. Carl Schilli, who, on drill weekends, is Master Sergeant Schilli, a metals technician assigned to the Missouri Air National Guard's 131st Maintenance Group. "After we did some touch-up work on the lathe, it was ready."

But modifications were needed.

"The fire department picked it up, tested it, and found a few things that needed to be changed, so over the next several days, we made modifications until we had a perfect working prototype," said Sergeant Gargano. "Now we're making five more."

Altogether, the new rig can fill the nozzle bay of a B-2 in less than three minutes, which will limit damage greatly, should such a fire occur again.

Col. Patricia McGinnis, 509th mission support group commander, nominated the triad involved with the development and implementation of the fire suppression device for a Spirit Award. Northrop-Grumman engineers, Whiteman Fire and Emergency Services, and the 509th Maintenance Group Metals Tech. shop were honored by Brig. Gen. Robert Wheeler, 509th Bomb Wing Commander, in a ceremony Monday at the fire station.

"This was quite a team effort here," said General Wheeler. "We're getting things done, grabbing a hold of a problem and solving it, and that's what sets Whiteman apart from the rest. We don't wait for solutions, we make the solutions."